Peach Pie and LIghtening

Peach Pie!  Hint...Eat it at the lake on the beach.  That's how we do it.  

Actually, that's how we usually do it.  This year we have periodic heavy rain with lots of thunder and lightening.  I just came back from a hair-raising hike with my sister and a friend.  We got about 20 minutes out when the lightning started up all around us.  

KABOOM!!
First we ran away from the pond because of the lightning danger. 

Then we crouched down under some pine trees because of the heavy rain.
KABOOM!!

Then we remembered about the tree danger (lightening targets).  So we ran away from the trees.   

Then we ran to a low spot and laid down.  

Then we got really wet so we got up and decided to make a run for it to the car.
KABOOM!!  KABOOM!!

Then there were trees everywhere (after all, it's a forest), KABOOM!! so we ran willy nilly through them trying not to get too close to any single one.
KABOOM!!  

Then we ran through a meadow, us being the tallest points for 100 feet on either side, squawking and screaming.
KABOOM!!  ABOOM!!  KABOOM!! 

By then it was only 10 minutes at a full sprint back to the car, KABOOM!!  But this was only accomplished with much dodging of lightning strikes, short stops to panic and much yelling of instructions at each other that no-one paid any mind to.  KABOOM!!

Finally, wringing wet, hair standing on end, panicked and crazed, we arrived at the car, loaded 5 dogs in, jumped in ourselves, slammed the doors and sat panting and gasping for breath while the lightning crashed all around us.  

We'll be eating our peach pie indoors this afternoon.  Here's the killer recipe we use every year.  The crowd always begs for more.  Serve it warm from the oven with lots of soft, drippy vanilla ice cream on top.

Cooks Illustrated Fool-Proof Double-Crust Pie Dough

Makes enough for one 9-inch pie

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2 T sugar

1 t salt

12 T unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces and chilled

8 T vegetable shortening cut into 4 pieces and chilled

1/4 cup vodka chilled

1/4 cup ice water

1.  Process 1.5 cups flour, sugar and salt together in food processor until combined, about 5 seconds.  Scatter butter and shortening over top and continue to process until incorporated ad mixture begins to form uneven clumps with no remaining floury bits, about 15 seconds. 

2.  Scrape down bowl and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade.  Sprinkle remaining 1 cup flour over dough and pulse until mixture has broke up into pieces and is evenly distributed around bowl, 4-6 pulses.

3. Transfer mixture to large bowl.  Sprinkle vodka and ice water over mixture.  Stir and press dough together, using stiff rubber spatula, until dough sticks together.

4. Divide dough into 2 even pieces.  Turn each piece of dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and flatten each into a 4-" disk.  Wrap each piece tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Before rolling out dough, let it sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes.  (Dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.  If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling it out.  

The key to making a great peach pie is great peaches, of course.  I like to start with ripe and delicious local summer peaches from my farmer's market.  

To make the peach pie, cut up a bunch of peaches, put in the uncooked pie crust, sprinkle with flour every few layers of peaches.  To make 2 pies, use 3 T butter and 1 cup of brown sugar.  Melt the butter and sugar together in a sauce pan.  Pour half of the mixture over the top of the peaches in each pie.  Sprinkle with a little more flour.  Place top crust on top of pie.  Poke with a fork.  Bake about an hour at 350 degrees. 

7PM July 4, 2015  The view from the beach.  By now the skies have cleared.  

Thom Felicia's Lake House

This morning One King's Lane is featuring a curated "lake house" collection by designer, Thom Felicia.  As they often do, they have included pictures of Felicia's own home and his personal comments about it.

Want more cabin design inspiration? 

Explore two of our most-loved posts:   

Can I Paint My Log Walls? 

8 of the Most Charming Cabin Kitchens Ever

See hundreds of wallpaper and fabrics curated especially for cabins, lodges, and mountain homes.  Tahoedreaminteriors.com    

Follow along for fresh cabin ideas and new mountain home inspiration: 

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Let your mountain home reflect the beauty, comfort, and creativity you love. — Sue Pipal

Wildflowers Everywhere!

This is just so charming.....

Don't get me wrong.  I love living at Lake Tahoe, especially in the summer time.  It has it's very own charms.

Here's what's going on at my favorite beach this week...

Lupins in full bloom!!!  These are actually chest high now.  

Otis amidst the lupins.  

Aren't they amazing!!!  

It's beautiful here year round, but these are perhaps my very favorite weeks of the year.  All around, the wildflowers are bursting forth in bloom, the leaves have that fresh green, just budded out look to them and the grasses are bright green and growing inches every day.  Streams and creeks are flowing and small animals and birds are everywhere you cast your eyes. Life in all its exuberance is all around.  

And speaking of wildflowers, I'm working on a project right now, where we have a tile artist creating a custom tile mural featuring Tahoe wildflowers.  Below is another piece from the artist, but ours will not be roses, of course.  I have sent the artist photos of all my favorite wildflowers. We have approved a sketch and now the artist painstakingly carves the new design into a mold from which she will cast the actual tiles.  Can't wait to see it when it's finished!  

Fabrics and Trims...My Favorite Part of Decorating Mountain Homes

As a designer at lake Tahoe, my work is mostly on lakeside cabins and rustic mountain lodges.  Whenever I'm asked where I start in designing a room, I have to answer, with the fabrics.  I confess that I am passionate about fabrics.  I love their textures, colors and patterns.  I love the way that fabrics have the ability to enliven, soften and warm up a room.  For me, they are the personality in any design.

Sometimes it's fun to show the design process.  Here are a series of fabric photos I sent to a client during the decorating of her stunning Martis Camp home.  Some of these made the final cut and some didn't. (See more photos of this house.)

Chivasso Osman

Meet Chivasso Osman.  This is one of my favorite mountain fabrics.  Clients often fall in love with it. The problem with Osman is that it's expensive, very expensive.  However, that doesn't stop us from using it.  I've learned how to stretch a yard or two of really good quality fabric into a pair of spectacular toss pillows, some Euro shams or, in this case, chair seats or seat backs.  I often mix or match really expensive fabrics with less expensive fabrics to keep the total cost down but the overall impact up.  Using a few yards of a beauty like this elevates an entire room.

Chivasso, Osman, see here.

Since many of my clients only visit Tahoe occasionally, in person meetings can be infrequent.  I often start my work by snapping photos of suggested fabrics and trims.  Sometimes these photos include flooring or tile samples, paint chips or wood trim, too, depending on what we already know will be in the room.  If the client is interested in what they see in the photo, I will order physical samples to be sent to their home.  In the case of this house, the client was living in Mexico City during the construction and we did not meet at all during the period of time we were making many of these decisions.  Below is the actual photo I sent her with fabric ideas for her den.  You can see below that we used the stripe and feather trim on the curtains and Chivasso Osman on the seat backs on a pair of upholstered chairs.

The client loves horses and Western artwork.  Throughout the house we've used Western details and trims.  

You can see our final finished chairs here before the room got dressed up with toss pillows and accessories.  

Some of the pillow ideas for this room.  

Evergreen, Blue, see here.  

Next, we have another mountain favorite, Evergreen by Grey Watkins.  Evergreen comes in three gorgeous colorways.  My client chose the blue.

Although not as expensive as Osman, Evergreen is just a bit pricey too, and we needed a lot of yardage for curtains in the daughter's room.  We had already used it for a dust ruffle on the bed and the budget was getting tight.  Rather than do the entire curtain in Evergreen, we chose to extend it with a pretty stripe from Calvin Fabrics (no longer available). 

Sorry for the poor quality of the cell phone photo--it's the best I have of this room.  

Finally, here are some original fabric photos sent to my client along with a sketch for a chair and ottoman in the living room.

The fabric is Lee Jofa Eric Cohler Sundance Tapestry.  Again, this fabric is expensive so we "stretched it " with a beautiful but highly affordable herringbone.  Using Sundance on the chair seat, back and ottoman top only amounted to a significant savings and yet, the impact of this gorgeous fabric is still there.  Luckily for my clients, combining multiple fabrics on one upholstery piece works especially well in mountain houses where the intended look is rustic, comfortable and casual. 

Sundance in Clay...gorgeous nubby woven texture, see here.